Monday, April 07, 2014

Tea Party Defender Of Traditional Marriage Busted Wrecking His Traditional Marriage

Freshman Rep. Vance McAllister (R-LA), who campaigned on a platform of "defending our Christian way of life" and on the "defense of natural marriage" has been caught on video making out with a young female staffer. Local news outlets are speculating about an affair. McAllister has issued the usual statement asking for privacy while his family gets through this extremely fucking embarrassing time.
There’s no doubt I’ve fallen short and I’m asking for forgiveness. I’m asking for forgiveness from God, my wife, my kids, my staff and my constituents who elected me to serve. Trust is something I know has to be earned whether you’re a husband, a father or a congressman. I promise to do everything I can to earn back the trust of everyone I’ve disappointed. From day one, I’ve always tried to be an honest man. I ran for Congress to make a difference and not just be another politician.
McAllister was elected in November 2013 special election after GOP Rep. Rodney Alexander resigned to join the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal. During his campaign McAllister sought and received the endorsement of the Duck Dynasty clan.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


The Latest Teabagger Memes

Out in Teabagistan some are declaring that Brendan Eich's Prop 8 donation was leaked by the IRS, a ridiculous claim that even some fellow baggers are shooting down. Twitchy today provides the newest meme and, of course, fails to mention that California law stipulates that donations to ballot measures are public record. 

UPDATE: The right wing Townhall is pushing the IRS bullshit.
Eich’s donation in support of Prop 8 was confidential, by law. The only reason it is known, why any of the donations are known, is the Internal Revenue Service illegally leaked the donor list to a gay rights group who posted it online. Someone in government broke the law and gave what amounts to a “hit list” to progressive foot soldiers who have been targeting donors for their personal beliefs. In this case it was gay groups, but these tactics are a favorite of progressives. Under communism people who didn’t embrace their agenda were purged, under fascism the nonconformists were sent to re-education/work camps, or killed. Progressives can’t simply murder or imprison people who flee their thought plantation, though they’d like to, so they try to ruin them in the meantime.
The teabagger site PJ Media is also making the IRS claim.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,


Westboro Chased From Oklahoma Town

Westboro staged a protest in an Oklahoma town yesterday to let the locals know that a recent tornado had killed those children because of the gays. The locals weren't having it.
Westboro’s permit to picket was for half an hour. They had been there a mere eight minutes when several people took matters into their own hands. Some Moore residents crossed the picket line to go after Westboro members. Dan Eccles said, “I was afraid of a riot really. I didn’t know how long Westboro would stay, which they were smart to leave.” Police were able to hold back the Moore residents while the Westboro bunch rushed to pack their signs in their cars and leave. Dan Eccles said, “They shagged tail, got in them cars and was leaving in a hurry. Oh yeah, they was gone!” “I thought it was hilarious. I mean I really did. We sat there and laughed the whole time,” said Tina Johnson. “They were running, yeah.”

Labels: , , ,


Beloved West Village Diner Closes Today

Vanishing New York reports that the much-loved West Village diner Manatus will close tonight in the face of a rent increase to $50K per month.
This is a sad day for the Village. Manatus has been in business since the mid-1980s, catering to the local LGBT clientele, and it is the last affordable, down-to-earth place to eat in that hyper-gentrified plastic part of town. I had my last meal there a couple months ago and didn't know it. If the original rumor is completely true, then a Calvin Klein store is taking Manatus' place.
A decade ago I lived about 15 seconds from Manatus at the corner of Bleecker and there were days when I ate there more than once. Several of the storefronts on that block have been boarded up for months, perhaps as landlords await tenants willing to pay these gentrified rents. (Tipped by JMG reader Alison)

Labels: , , ,


Alliance Defending Freedom Launches Money Beg After Rejection By SCOTUS

Immediately upon the Supreme Court rejecting their appeal in the case of the anti-gay New Mexico photographer, the virulently anti-gay Alliance Defending Freedom launched a money beg.  According to the ADF, while the New Mexico Supreme Court "got it wrong," that case was "not in vain" and they've got cases in other states that are still in progress. (Via Good As You)

Labels: , , , , , ,


Mrs. Betty Bowers: Bedtime Bible Stories

Clip recap:
America's Best Christian, Mrs. Betty Bowers, reads her children Bible-based bedtime stories -- and realizes that, with all its gratuitous violence and pornography, if God hadn't written the Bible, Conservative Christians would be trying to keep it OUT of public libraries not IN to public schools!
One of her best.

Labels: , ,


Tony Perkins Has The SCOTUS Sadz

"The Supreme Court's refusal to hear and uphold the First Amendment rights of Elaine Huguenin, a wedding photographer, are deeply disturbing. Does our nation's highest court really believe the price of citizenship is the surrender of conscience? The Supreme Court ignored an opportunity to reaffirm the basic principle that the government may not trample on fundamental rights of free speech and the free exercise of religion. These rights do not stop at the exit door of your local church, and instead extend to every area of a religious person's life.Is the judicial branch now writing the epilogue to the American experiment in ordered liberty? The burden to protect the inalienable rights that are the cornerstone of our political success as a nation now falls to state and federal legislators." - KKK-affiliated hate group leader Tony Perkins, writing for the FRC.

Labels: , , , , , ,


Homocon Tweet Of The Day

Labels: , , ,


MICHIGAN: State Asks For Full Sixth Circuit Court To Hear Marriage Appeal

Michigan has asked for an en banc review of the marriage equality case now before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Lyle Dennison writes at SCOTUSblog:
This is the first time that a state which has had its ban on such marriages struck down in a district court has asked for full court review of an appeal. Federal judges in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee have ruled in favor of same-sex marriage claims — sometimes broadly, sometimes more narrowly – and each of those has now been appealed. The Sixth Circuit has put each of them on an expedited review schedule, but so far has given no indication that this would be done other than by separate three-judge panels. The normal path for cases in the federal appeals courts begins initially with three-judge panels; then, if the case is of major importance, it may go before the full tribunal. It takes a majority vote of all of the active judges on the full court to grant such rehearings. Such en banc review is not common, but it also is not rare.
Dennison notes that leapfrogging the normal three-judge review would likely speed the case to its inevitable appeal before the US Supreme Court. (Tipped by JMG reader Dwight)

Labels: , , ,


Porno Pete Has The SCOTUS Sadz

Labels: , , , , , , ,


Brian Brown Has The Ohio Sadz

"We condemn the indication from Judge Timothy Black that he will order the state of Ohio to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere in violation of the Ohio constitution. This is an affront to the rule of law and to the people of Ohio who voted overwhelmingly to define marriage solely as the union of one man and one woman. The judge joins a list of others who have shamefully substituted their own views for the considered judgment of the people of America. Judge Black and other federal judges have twisted this ruling into something unrecognizable. We call on the US Supreme Court to establish for good that the sovereign states have the ability to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman." - Hate group leader Brian Brown, adding a call for Ohio to appeal the ruling when it is issued.

Labels: , , , , , , ,


Fran Lebowitz On Spelling

"Spelling. I am probably the worst speller in the world, so I am constantly looking things up. Every time I sit at my desk, I look at my dictionary, a Webster’s Second Unabridged with nine million words in it and think, All the words I need are in there; they’re just in the wrong order." - Fran Lebowitz, quoting from her Paris Review interview on her Facebook page. (Via JMG reader Brett)

Labels: , ,


LIVE VIDEO: Nebraska Senate Debates Workplace Protections For LGBT Citizens

Here's what's going on:
Under LB 485 by Lincoln Sen. Danielle Conrad, employers would be prohibited from discriminating against a person on the basis of his or her sexual orientation. The bill applies to employers of 15 or more people, those with state contracts, the state of Nebraska and other government agencies. The debate began in the Legislature Thursday but became stalled as the Legislature recessed for the weekend. "[LGBT citizens] deserve the same rights we all presently enjoy in the workplace," Conrad said during the debate. "This legislation should not be about special rights for anyone; it is about equal rights for everyone." However, there was a huge outcry among some senators, saying this was infringing on business owners' freedom of religion.
The bill includes gender identity.

UPDATE: The debate has concluded.

Labels: , , ,


Alliance Defending Freedom Has The Sadz

"The First Amendment protects our freedom to speak or not speak on any issue without fear of punishment. We had hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would use this case to affirm this basic constitutional principle; however, the court will likely have several more opportunities to do just that in other cases of ours that are working their way through the court system. Americans oppose unjust laws that strong-arm citizens to express ideas against their will. Elaine and numerous others like her around the country have been more than willing to serve any and all customers, but they are not willing to promote any and all messages. A government that forces any American to create a message contrary to her own convictions is a government every American should fear." - Alliance Defending Freedom lead counsel Jordan Lorence, responding to today's refusal to take his case by the US Supreme Court.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


Pittsburgh High School Lip-Dubs Avicii

These are always fun. But when did high schools get so huge? This place looks more like a college.

Labels: , , ,


Coldplay - Magic

Rolling Stone reviews the first single from Coldplay's coming album, which goes on sale next month:
"Magic" is more of a return to form. Although the track leads with a bass-heavy, almost electronic-inflected groove – not unlike one of Radiohead's moodier tracks – Martin's voice makes it sound like vintage Coldplay. "Call it magic," he sings. "Call it true. Call it magic, when I'm with you." And even though the band includes thoughtful, deeply textured production touches like warbling synths and guitar reverb that lingers a little longer than usual, Martin intones the falsetto "woos" and a catchy "Yes, I do" hook that, along with a lush acoustic guitar buildup in the middle, prove it to be Coldplay through and through.

Labels: , ,


Today On Breitbart

Breitbart today launched the sub-site Breitbart California with a series of photoshopped images of leading Democrat and liberals. The images are the work of Leonard Sabo, who created that poster of a tattoo-covered Ted Cruz. Above we see Nancy Pelosi as Miley Cyrus. Also posted is an image of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose head has been grafted onto the body of a topless woman for unknown reasons.

Labels: , , ,


BREAKING: SCOTUS Rejects Appeal Of Anti-Gay New Mexico Photographer

The US Supreme Court today declined to hear the appeal of the New Mexico woman who refused to photograph the commitment ceremony of a lesbian couple. The case has been the linchpin of the anti-gay movement to allow businesses to turn away gay customers and was the starting point of numerous campaigns to legalize such discrimination by state law.

Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade:
In orders published Monday morning, the court listed the case, Elane Photography v. Willock, without comment among as the cases it won’t consider. The case was brought to the Supreme Court by Elane Photography, which was found to have violated New Mexico’s anti-discrimination law for refusing to take a photo for the same-sex wedding ceremony for Vanessa Willock and Misti Collinsworth in 2006. (The wedding was only ceremonial because the incident took place before the state legalized same-sex marriage. Elane Photography filed lawsuit in state court, alleging that its refusal to photograph a same-sex wedding is protected on religious grounds. However, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled against the claims, saying the businesses service can be regulated because it’s a public accommodation. Following that decision, Elane Photography asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the lawsuit based on First Amendment protections under the U.S. Constitution.
And the Alliance Defending Freedom loses AGAIN. Today's refusal may mean the end of all the similar "wedding cake" cases. Stand by for the sadz!

UPDATE: The ACLU celebrates.
"No court has ever held that businesses have a First Amendment right to discriminate, and it is no surprise that the Supreme Court has denied this attempt to overturn settled law," said Joshua Block, staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Project. "Selling commercial wedding photography services, like selling a wedding cake or a flower arrangement, does not mean that a business owner endorses a customer's marriage. The business is simply providing a commercial service. Everybody has the right to express their views on whatever subject they wish, and that includes business owners. But every business has to play by the same rules to protect customers from discrimination in the marketplace."

Labels: , , , , , , ,


Debbie Harry Comes Out As Bisexual

Debbie Harry has revealed that she is bisexual in an interview with a German magazine. Britain's Daily Mail tabloid has the story:
When asked whether long-standing rumours of her affairs with girls were true, she said, "Yeah," adding: "Let’s say women are more sensual." Harry, who enjoyed a long-term relationship with fellow band member Chris Stein, did not name any of her female lovers. She also insisted that her most enduring relationships had been with men and that she longed to fall in love again. "I don’t know if I have any specific requirements," she said. "Just somebody nice, who has a good sense of humour and loves to have sex. What more could you ask for?"
Harry also referred to Blondie's refusal of an offer to perform at the Sochi Olympics and denounced Russia's crackdown on LGBT people. "Why make such a big thing out of a personal choice or a natural instinct? It seems barbaric and idiotic." Harry's use of the word "choice" is somewhat unfortunate, but perhaps less so in the context of bisexuality.  (Via Towleroad)

Labels: , , ,


Sullivan Doubles-Down On Mozilla Flap

Yesterday Andrew Sullivan acknowledged that the resignation of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich was not the work of gay activists but came as the result of pressure from the "techie straight left." (Ben Shapiro appears to concede that point as well.) But Sullivan remains outraged.
A civil rights movement without toleration is not a civil rights movement; it is a cultural campaign to expunge and destroy its opponents. A moral movement without mercy is not moral; it is, when push comes to shove, cruel. For a decade and half, we have fought the battle for equal dignity for gay people with sincerity, openness, toleration and reason. It appears increasingly as if we will have to fight and fight again to prevent this precious and highly successful legacy from being hijacked by a righteous, absolutely certain, and often hateful mob. We are better than this. And we must not give in to it.
Sullivan says he's gotten hundreds of emails from readers who "overwhelmingly disagree" with him about the controversy.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


Mark Knight: The Return Of Wolfy

Knight earned a 2010 Grammy nomination for his work on the Black Eyed Peas smash album The E.N.D.  The new track is very much a mid-90s throwback.

Labels: , , ,


More On #TruvadaWhore

The Associated Press has published a lengthy examination of the use of Truvada as a daily HIV preventive, which is opposed by some activists and the often combative AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
It's the Truvada conundrum: A drug hailed as a lifesaver for many people infected by HIV is at the heart of a rancorous debate among gay men, AIDS activists and health professionals over its potential for protecting uninfected men who engage in gay sex without using condoms. Many doctors and activists see immense promise for such preventive use of Truvada, and are campaigning hard to raise awareness of it as a crucial step toward reducing new HIV infections, which now total about 50,000 a year in the U.S. Recent efforts range from think-tank forums and informational websites to a festive event at a New York City bar featuring popular drag queens. Yet others — despite mounting evidence of Truvada's effectiveness — say such efforts are reckless, tempting some condom users to abandon that layer of protection and exposing them to an array of other sexually transmitted infections aside from HIV. "If something comes along that's better than condoms, I'm all for it, but Truvada is not that," said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "Let's be honest: It's a party drug."
Truvada costs about $13K a year and its use as a preventive is covered by most insurance plans. Hit the link for much more from the AP.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


Mickey Rooney Dies At Age 93

Via the New York Times:
Mickey Rooney, the exuberant entertainer who led a roller-coaster life — the world’s top box-office star at 19 as the irrepressible Andy Hardy, a bankrupt has-been in his 40s, a comeback kid on Broadway as he neared 60 — died on Sunday. He was 93 and lived in Westlake Village, Calif. His death was confirmed by his son Michael Joseph Rooney. He stood only a few inches taller than five feet, but Mr. Rooney was larger and louder than life. From the moment he toddled onto a burlesque stage at 17 months to his movie debut at 6 to his career-crowning Broadway debut in “Sugar Babies” at 59 and beyond, he did it all. He could act, sing, dance, play piano and drums, and before he was out of short pants he could cry on cue.

Labels: , , ,


Matt Baume: Marriage News Watch

Clip recap:
"Anti-gay groups are getting desperate, with one candidate for governor comparing marriage equality to murder. An Alabama scheme to slip a marriage ban into the US Constitution is moving forward but is pretty much guaranteed to fail. A judge in Ohio rules that marriage equality isn't only for dead people anymore. Plus, a major marriage victory in Utah gets put to the test on appeal this Thursday."

Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,


Sunday, April 06, 2014

Google Files To Trademark "Glass"

Google wants to trademark the word "glass." Mashable reports that the US Patent Office has a couple of problems with that.
The tech giant wants the trademark, of course, for its Google Glass eyewear. It already has the trademark for "Google Glass," but is seeking an additional trademark for the word "Glass" by itself, styled in the futuristic font Google uses in its packaging and marketing. The first issue is that the Glass trademark might be too similar to other glass trademarks or pending trademarks since, as it turns out, Google's not the first company to apply for a glass trademark. It's not even the first computer software/hardware related glass trademark application on file. The letter from the USPTO includes various approved or pending applications for design marks such as "glass," "looking glass," "iGlass," "smartglass" and "teleglass." The second issue is that even if Google got a trademark on Glass — distinctive font and all — the USPTO doesn't think glass is a term that can be trademarked under federal law, which says that you can't trademark words that describe a product. It also sees "glass" as "merely descriptive."
Google contends nobody will confuse their product with others because everybody knows about Google Glass. They also claim that the US Patent Office is wrong to categorize the word "glass" as descriptive because Google Glass units contain no actual glass.

Labels: , ,


Ben Shapiro: We Are Using The Left's Own Despicable Tactics Against Mozilla

On Friday, Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro launched a boycott petition and uninstall campaign against Mozilla and its browser Firefox on his website Truth Revolt. Today Shapiro claims that his campaign has resulted in thousands of complaints on Mozilla's website.
Mozilla publishes its feedback at the URL http://input.mozilla.org. The record dates back to April 2012. In that time, there has never been a single day in which the total number of negative comments exceeded 2,200 -- until the ouster of Eich. On Friday, the day after the resignation, the number of negative comments was well over 7,000 with another 6,000 negatives on Saturday. The disapproval comment rating skyrocketed to over 90%. The barrage of negative feedback comes in the wake of an aggressive campaign by TruthRevolt and others to hold Mozilla accountable for its bigotry. A petition on this website, the second-most signed in our history, has garnered well over 5,000 signatures; users of Firefox have been blocked since Thursday from accessing the site until reading a message encouraging them to change browsers. Even well-respected conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer called for a boycott. Blocking Firefox users is the same technique employed by the online dating site OkCupid, which originally led Mozilla to the despicable action of firing their CEO for his personal beliefs.
Shapiro also brags that 5644 people signed his uninstall Firefox pledge on its first day. Assuming he keeps up that pace, Shapiro will have rid the world of its estimated one billion Firefox downloads in just over 485 years. (Yes, I did the math.) In the below Fox News clip, Shapiro declares that he has turned the tables and is using the left's own "despicable tactics" against them. He goes on to direct his outrage at OKCupid, but unlike Andrew Sullivan, he does not attack gay activists. Perhaps that's because I tweeted him several times to point out that not one LGBT group had publicly commented on the Mozilla controversy until Eich had resigned.

RELATED: Regardless of where you stand on the Mozilla issue, you might want to hit the above link and leave them a kind message. If for no other reason than to fuck with Ben Shapiro.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,


SNL: Dongs All Over The World

Us Magazine has the recap:
The new Lonely Island? Anna Kendrick hosted Saturday Night Live on April 5, and the Pitch Perfect 2 star brought several musical sketches along with her. One favorite entitled "Dongs All Over the World," featured some of of SNL's feistiest ladies -- including Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Sasheer Zamata -- singing about traveling the globe in search of international "dongs." In the vein of Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg's classic "Dick in a Box" sketch from 2006, the raunchy clip featured the five "nasty girls" singing about skipping the sites in favor of getting it on.

Labels: , ,


Conchita Wurst: Live In Amsterdam

Last month I reported that gender-fuck artist Conchita Wurst had won Austria's Eurovision contest and will represent her country at the final showdown in Copenhagen. Last night Wurst and winning acts from other nations performed in Amsterdam at Eurovision In Concert. The production video of Wurst's Eurovision entry, Rise Like A Phoenixis here, but this is the first time we're seeing her perform it live and wow - does she ever knock it out of the park.

Labels: , , ,


Frank Bruni On The Mozilla Flap

"A leading supporter of gay marriage, [Andrew] Sullivan warned other supporters not to practice 'a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else.' I can’t get quite as worked up as he did. For one thing, prominent gay rights groups weren’t part of the Mozilla fray. For another, Mozilla isn’t the first company to make leadership decisions (or reconsiderations) with an eye toward the boss’s cultural mind-meld with the people below him or her. And if you believe that to deny a class of people the right to marry is to deem them less worthy, it’s indeed difficult to chalk up opposition to marriage equality as just another difference of opinion. But it’s vital to remember how very recently so many of equality’s promoters, like Obama and Clinton, have come around and how relatively new this conversation remains. [snip] Sullivan is right to raise concerns about the public flogging of someone like Eich. Such vilification won’t accelerate the timetable of victory, which is certain. And it doesn’t reflect well on the victors." - Frank Bruni, writing for the New York Times.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


International Pillow Fight Day

Yesterday was the 7th Annual International Pillow Fight Day and folks soft-slugged it out in dozens of the world's major cities. This year a drone hovered over NYC's event in Washington Square.

Labels: , ,


Saturday, April 05, 2014

VIRGINIA: Haters File 21 Marriage Ban Defense Briefs With Fourth Circuit Court

Twenty-one amicus briefs were filed yesterday with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in defense of Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage. The briefs were filed on behalf of the usual axis of evil: the Concernstipated Women, the Liberty Counsel, Phyllis Schlafy's Eagle Forum, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Mormon Church, the Southern Baptists Convention, the Heritage Foundation, the Virginia Catholic Conference, David Barton's WallBuilders, the Family Research Council, the North Carolina Values Coalition, and the (completely fake) American College of Pediatrics. Also filing briefs are the states of West Virginia and Indiana.

Individuals filing briefs include former NOM chairman Robert George and nutbag homocon Voldemort horcrux Robert Oscar Lopez, who claims that authorities are too afraid of the gay mafia to investigate reports of molestation by gay parents.
Another of the individual filings is from some crackpot named David Boyle who argues, among other deranged claims, that gay people should not be allowed to marry because there was this one time when a lesbian died from "vaginal fisting." Seriously. Equality Case Files has posted all of the briefs at the first link. There's surely nothing worth worrying about in any of them since these are pretty much all the same dirtbags who have lost everywhere else. But if you want to amuse yourself, dig into the briefs and recap what you find in the comments. A better way to waste your Saturday, of course, would be to commit some delicious deviant sodomy. But hey, it's your weekend.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


Harlem Hate Church Pastor Again Posts "Jesus Would Stone Homos" Message

JMG reader and Harlem resident Mike sends us the above photo of the "Jesus Would Stone Homos" message being reposted on the sign that was vandalized two weeks ago. The other side of the sign declares "unconditional forgiveness" for the vandal and adds that he is being prayed for.

Labels: , , , , , ,


Media Matters: Right Wing Rodeo

"The weeks worst moments in conservative media."

Labels: , , ,


Quote Of The Day - Markos Moulitsas

"Would Sullivan rush to this guy's defense if it turned out he was a Grand Wizard in the KKK? Of course not. We are allowed to be intolerant of people who operate outside the bounds of civil decency. This wasn't governmental action infringing on any Constitutional rights. This was Mozilla developers saying they refused to do work with a bigot, private websites blocking access to the Firefox browser because they refused to do business with a bigot, and employees of the firm speaking up because they refused to work for a bigot. In short, it was the free market expressing itself. Eich was perfectly within his rights to stay at Mozilla, but he would then face a hostile market and eventually faced the reality that he couldn't do his job in that environment. The free market spoke, and a free market enterprise was forced to react." - Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, writing for his site.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


Duyba's Paintings Go On Exhibit

The Guardian eviscerates the paintings of former President George W. Bush in a review headlined The Art Of Forrest Gump:
Americans do tend to be forgiving of their more controversial presidents. This generosity is surely born of national self-regard. If you see the presidency as peopled by monsters how can you love your country? So like Nixon before him, Dubya is getting reassessed, or at least repackaged, his martial presidency forgotten in America's cosy reception of his cute paintings, unveiled in a television interview with his own daughter.

It's like being nice about the family idiot's latest art project. Aw, isn't that sweet, poor George has done paintings of world leaders. He's putting them in his little museum. The soppiness is unmitigated: early online reactions blathered moist-eyed about him capturing Vladimir Putin's "soul". His portrait of Putin actually looks like something you would find in one of America's trash-rich Salvation Army stores and buy to laugh at. It's got a classic amateur clumsiness and oddity to it.

Idiocy in art has its charms. In the man who ran the free world into bloodstained buffers, those charms quickly sour. These empty headed daubs look the work of someone you wouldn't trust to mow a lawn without cutting someone's foot off. Winston Churchill also took up art as a hobby and even won respect as a serious painter – the art historian EH Gombrich compared him with Constable. But there was every reason to be kind to Churchill the painter. He had earned his pleasures.

Labels: , ,


Todd Starnes On Brendan Eich

"Why not demand that those who oppose gay marriage relinquish the right to own property? Why not take away their right to vote? Why not take away their children? Why not just throw them in jail? Why not force them to work in chain gangs? Why not call for public floggings? Or better yet, let’s just strap them down on gurneys, stick a needle in their arm and rid the world of these intolerant anti-gay bigots once and for all. The road to political correctness is littered with the bodies of folks like Brendan Eich sideswiped by the tolerance and diversity bus." - Fox News reporter Todd Starnes, writing for Townhall.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,


Carole King Surprises Beautiful Cast At Curtain Call Plea For AIDS Donations

Beautiful, the Broadway musical that tells Carole King's life story through her songs, has been running for months to record crowds and rave reviews. King had famously declined to see the show, telling Playbill in December after walking out of a reading, "I can't watch my life played out before me."  She changed her mind on Thursday, choosing to attend the show during the week that Broadway casts issue curtain call pleas for donations to Equity Fights AIDS.
She finally showed up. After months of wondering whether Carole King would ever come to see the Broadway musical based on her life and comprising her music, the singer/songwriter surprised the cast and crew by attending Thursday evening’s performance of “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.” After the curtain call, as the cast was doing the annual appeal for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Ms. King ventured out on stage. “They had no idea,” she told the applauding audience. Jessie Mueller, who earned strong reviews for her portrayal of Ms. King when the show opened in January, wept, along with several other members of the cast. The charity effort became a song auction: Ms. King led the cast in “You’ve Got a Friend.” The appeal raised $30,000.

RELATED: Carole King's 1971 album Tapestry has sold over 25 million copies and is among the greatest selling albums of all time. It swept the major awards at the 1972 Grammys, taking Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Record Of The Year, and Best Pop Female Vocal. Tapestry spent 15 consecutive weeks atop the albums chart and 43 years later that remains the record for a female vocalist. The album appeared on the Billboard Top 200 for 302 weeks, another record for a female vocalist, and sixth on the all-time list for weeks on that chart. (#1 is Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon at 741 weeks.)

Labels: , , , , , ,


Tired Old Queen at the Movies #123

Clip recap:
Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey give iconic, Oscar winning performances in Bob Fosse's brilliant CABARET (1972). The plot deals with a tragic affair between a would-be novelist and a cabaret chanteuse, set against the decadence of pre-Nazi Berlin in the early 1930's. Based on the writings of Christopher Isherwood, shot on location in Berlin and adapted from the Tony winning Kander and Ebb musical, it also stars Michael York, Marissa Berenson and Helmut Griem. Filled with eye popping musical numbers, brilliant performances and Fosse's subtle direction, CABARET is an unsurpassed musical achievement not to be missed!

Labels: , ,


NOM Launches Mozilla Boycott

On Thursday hate group leader Brian Brown launched a petition in support of former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich. Late Friday afternoon he launched a boycott of Mozilla.
"When Brendon Eich made his modest contribution to support Proposition 8, Barack Obama was on the ballot as a candidate who said he believed marriage was the union of one man and one woman. Now Eich has been the target of a vicious character attack by gay activists who have forced him out of the company he has helped lead for years. This is a McCarthyesque witch hunt that makes the term 'thought police' seem modest. We urge all consumers to remove Mozilla's Firefox web browser from their computers as a sign of protest. This attack to deny Mr. Eich his livelihood for supporting true marriage is a continuation of the shameful pattern we have consistently seen from gay activists. It basically says to all those in America and around the world who believe in a view of marriage that is consistent with the teachings of their faith that they are all bigots and haters and there is no place for them in civil society. This is the totalitarian worldview we will all be under if marriage ultimately is redefined in the law."
VERY FUCKING RELATED: Two years ago NOM launched their continuing boycott of Starbucks after the company issued a statement endorsing marriage equality in Washington state. Several months after the boycott started, hate group leader Tony Perkins declared to his national radio audience that NOM's boycott had cost Starbucks over $10B in stock value.
It didn’t take long for Starbucks to lose bucks over marriage. Hello, I’m Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council in Washington. In January, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said endorsing same-sex marriage would be good for business. Boy was he wrong! Siding with radical homosexuals has its price in this country. And in Starbucks case, the cost is about ten billion dollars. That’s how much the coffee giant’s lost in stock value since the campaign to Dump Starbucks got underway. In the last eight months, the company's missed sales projections and watched stocks dive from $61 to $48, for a loss of more than $10.2 billion. How many companies will fall for the lie that endorsing same-sex marriage will help business? J.C. Penney’s tried it. Target’s tried it. Now Starbucks. And every time, there’s a reason to believe that alienating millions of customers will directly affect a company’s bottom line. On the flip side, look at Chick-fil-A. They found out that supporting traditional values pays just as many cultural dividends as financial ones.
Brian Brown and his clown car of evil are trying to sell the claim that they are super concerned about evil homofascsists destroying the livelihood of Brendan Eich, but they bragged about having caused a $10B stock loss that may have devastated the investment portfolios of uncountable retirees, families, and pension funds. So what if thousands of people who also oppose same-sex marriage suddenly saw their nest eggs dwindle? And if a dive in stock price prompted Starbucks to enact massive layoffs among straight minimum wage workers? Serves them homos right.

The truth, of course, is that NOM's boycott had nothing to do with the price of Starbucks stock and everything to do with the volatility experienced by much of the restaurant sector at that time. In early 2012 at the start of NOM's boycott, Starbucks traded at $43. It closed today at $71.55. That's a 66% increase. Other companies are probably lighting candles in the hope of a boycott from NOM.

But all that is only part of the story.

Shortly after NOM's boycott of Starbucks began in America, Brian Brown posted a gloating update in which he announced that NOM had purchased Arabic-language banner ads to promote the boycott on websites based in several Middle Eastern countries that carry the death penalty for homosexuality. His intent, obviously, was to whip up anti-gay sentiment in places where our brothers and sisters already lead lives of quiet terror at best. Perhaps he even hoped for a madman to take out the entire staff at one of those overseas Starbucks. THAT would send a message back home, huh?

REMINDER: When major national Christian groups with millions of followers call for boycotts, that is a righteous use of the free market in order to preserve morality, marriage, family, and the American way. But if a gay keyboard activist tweets a call for a boycott, THAT is homofascist intimidation, intolerance, bullying, a stifling of religious liberty, and an attempt to deny the freedom of speech. And don't you forget it.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,


Friday, April 04, 2014

Nate Silver Compiles Prop 8 Donations By Staffers At Major Silicon Valley Companies

Using a Los Angeles Times database of donations to the 2008 Proposition 8 campaign, stats guru Nate Silver has compiled a list of how the staffers of major Silicon Valley tech companies weighed in with their wallets.
The list includes Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Cisco Systems, Apple, Google, Sun Microsystems, eBay, Oracle, Yahoo, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Symantec. I limited the search to donors who listed California as their location. In total between these 11 companies, 83 percent of employee donations were in opposition to Proposition 8. So Eich was in a 17 percent minority relative to the top companies in Silicon Valley. However, there was quite a bit of variation from business to business. At Intel, 60 percent of employee donations were in support of Proposition 8. By contrast, at Apple, 94 percent of employee donations were made in opposition to Proposition 8. The opposition was even higher at Google, where 96 percent of employee donations were against it, including $100,000 from co-founder Sergey Brin. There isn’t much data on Mozilla. Only four Proposition 8 donors listed it as their employer: Eich, who donated in support of the measure, and three others who opposed it.
Silver notes that his result does not include those who chose to donate to either side of the campaign without disclosing the name of their employers. About 12% of those in the database did not.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


FLORIDA: Fourth Marriage Lawsuit Filed

Florida's fourth marriage equality lawsuit was filed today against a panhandle county clerk.
The debate over same-sex marriage is making its mark locally with the filing of a lawsuit against Washington County Interim Clerk of Court Harold Bazzel after his office refused to issue a marriage license for a local gay couple. “We followed the law,” said Bazzel. “The statute in Florida says marriage must be between a man and a woman.” Stephen Schlairet and Ozzie Russ of Chipley filed the suit with the U.S. District Court Wednesday, March 21, naming Bazzel and several other defendants, including Governor Rick Scott and Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi. The couple is seeking to have the law declared unconstitutional.
RELATED: Earlier this week a Key West couple filed a marriage suit against the Monroe County Clerk. In January, Equality Florida and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a marriage equality suit on behalf of six local couples. Last month the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, who authored Florida's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, filed a motion to intervene in the case. Also last month, the ACLU filed a lawsuit which demands that Florida recognize legal out-of-state marriages.

Labels: , ,


Ben Shapiro Launches Mozilla Boycott

Tea Party shrieker Ben Shapiro has launched an OKCupid-style boycott of Mozilla on his Truth Revolt site. Because gaystapo. You can't even get out of the Mozilla boycott petition unless you come back on a browser other than Firefox.

REMINDER: When powerful national Christian groups with millions of members call for boycotts, that is a righteous use of the free market in order to preserve morality, marriage, family, and the American way. But when gay individuals call for a boycott, THAT is homofascist intimidation, intolerance, bullying, a stifling of religious liberty, and an attempt to deny the freedom of speech. And don't you forget it.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,


Glenn Beck On Mozilla: Gay Activist Groups Are Turning Into Terrorists

What Glenn Beck apparently doesn't know, or at least refuses to acknowledge, is that none of the major LGBT rights groups publicly called for a Mozilla boycott or for Eich to be removed as CEO. The Eich story is a grassroots, internet activism story. The loudest voice in the boycott campaign was the dating website OKCupid, whose parent company is headed by billionaire "heterosexual" Barry Diller. But don't expect Glenn Beck to go after a somebody who runs dozens of the largest web-based corporations. Or label a powerful Jewish man as part of the "gaystapo."

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


Mozilla: Eich Jumped, Wasn't Pushed

Mozilla's Firefox account on Twitter has 2.4M followers and they have responded to many complaints today.

Labels: , , , , , , ,


New From The Liberty Counsel

Clip recap: "Every child deserves a father and a mother. These natural family structures are proven to be the best social structure for raising children, accomplishing life goals, and being self-sufficient. Please SHARE to get the message out that natural marriage is the best thing for our society."

Labels: , , , , , ,


Tweet Of The Day - Jason Collins

The attack is in full swing over at Twitchy.

Labels: , , , , , , ,


Brendan Eich Deletes Twitter Account

OnTop Magazine points out that former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich has deleted his Twitter account. What this means, who can say?

Labels: , , ,


RUSSIA: Court Rules That Kostroma's Pride Parade Was Wrongly Banned

Last year the Russian city of Kostroma banned two gay pride demonstrations. Today a court in that region ruled that the bans were wrongly imposed. Via Gay Star News:
The Presidium of Kostroma Regional Court - the highest court in the region - has ruled two rallies held last year in June protesting against the nationwide ‘gay propaganda’ ban should have been allowed to go ahead. The six judges heard from gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseev as well as the western Russian’s city local government that banned the event. Lawyers fighting for the ban on gay rights protests claimed the organizers would ‘promote non-traditional sexual relations’. They also claimed the police would not be able to ensure the safety of all participants in the protests. But the judges said LGBTI people deserve a right to freedom of expression and protection from discrimination. Following the announcement, Alekseev announced he would be serving Kostroma with notice of a new Pride and other gay rights events held in public.
Kostroma has a population of 250,000 and is a popular port of call for cruise ships.

Labels: , ,


Pop Stars Celebrate The 30th Anniversary Of Cyndi Lauper's She So Unusual

Pop stars are celebrating this week's 30th anniversary of the release of Cyndi Lauper's She So Unusual with tweets that often include photos of themselves doing unusual things. Those taking part so far include Gloria Estefan, Rufus Wainwright, Celine Dion, Tony Bennett, Sandra Bernhard, Margaret Cho, Toni Braxton, Sarah McLachlan, and Kate Pierson. Hit the link to follow along as the tweets are posted.

Labels: , ,


RuPaul Drives Olivia Newton-John


RELATED:  Next week Olivia Newton-John, 65, will launch a four month run at the Las Vegas Flamingo. Titled Summer Nights, the show will be a retrospective of her nearly 50-year career, which launched in 1966 with her first single. Her 1971 debut album, If Not For You, yielded the first of 26 US Top 40 hits to date. Five of those singles reached #1 including 1981's Physical, which spent ten weeks at the top. Her 1978 Grease duet with John Travolta, You're The One That I Want, is on the list of the world's greatest selling singles of all time.

Labels: , ,


OHIO: Federal Judge Will Strike Down Ban On Recognizing Out-Of-State Marriages

Chris Geidner has the news at Buzzfeed:
Following a hearing Friday, a federal judge in Ohio announced he plans to rule that Ohio has to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples granted out of state. In a docket entry summarizing the hearing, the court stated, “The Court anticipates striking down as unconstitutional under all circumstances Ohio’s bans on recognizing legal same-sex marriages from other states.” Ohio’s 2004 law and constitutional amendment barring same-sex couples from marrying also bar the state from recognizing the marriages of same-sex couples performed elsewhere. The case is not about whether Ohio must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but only the recognition portion of the state’s laws.
If the state appeals the recognition ruling, it will go to the Sixth Circuit Court, which has already been handed marriage-related cases from Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee. As you can see, that's every state in its jurisdiction.

Labels: , ,


NBA Auctions Signed Collins Jerseys

The NBA just emailed to tip me that they have launched an auction for autographed Jason Collin jerseys. Sales will benefit the Matthew Shepard Foundation and GLSEN.
Each jersey is authenticated by the NBA and MeiGray Game-Worn Authentication Program. MeiGray Group, the official game-worn partner of the NBA, offers collectors the highest standards of authenticity, integrity, and reliability for all game-used items. Collins became the first openly gay, active male athlete from one of the four major North American professional team sports on Feb. 23, after signing with his original team, the Nets. Since he was added to the roster, Collins’ jersey spent three weeks in the No. 1 spot on the top-selling jersey list at NBAStore.com. Collins wears the number “98” in honor of Matthew Shepard, a college student who was murdered in 1998 after being targeted for being openly gay. The NBA has a long history of supporting the LGBT community including partnerships with GLSEN, GLAAD and Athlete Ally and was the recipient of the 2012 Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion Award at the GLSEN Respect Awards. In addition, Jason Collins received the 2013 Courage Award at the 10th annual GLSEN Respect Awards and Denver Nuggets star Kenneth Faried was awarded the 2012 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, in part because of his relationship with Athlete Ally.
Bidding has opened at $250 for each jersey.

Labels: , , , , , , ,


Activist Groups React To Mozilla News

Courage Campaign
“Across the country, the LGBT community and progressive activists are heartened by Mozilla’s decisive action to remove Mr. Eich as the CEO of their for-profit and nonprofit ventures. It is a testament to the power of online grassroots organizing. The decision to hold its CEO to the same high standards of inclusion and equality that the company advocates, Mozilla once again reaffirmed its credibility as a thoroughly progressive institution. Let this be a clear message to those at other progressive institutions around the country -- homophobia and bigotry are not progressive values, and will not be tolerated.”
CREDO
“We applaud Mozilla’s announcement and its strong stand for equal rights,” said Becky Bond, CREDO’s Political Director. “Mozilla is not just company, it’s a movement supported by tens of thousands of volunteers around the world. Mozilla is a non-profit organization fighting to keep the web open and free for all of us. They put people above profit, and fight for user choice and privacy. Mozilla’s mission is vitally important to every grassroots movement, including the work that we do here at CREDO.”
NOTE: There have been few public reactions to the Mozilla story by LGBT groups, who seem have largely left the issue to grassroots activists. GLAAD has issued a one sentence statement: "Mozilla’s strong statement in favor of equality today reflects where corporate America is: inclusive, safe, and welcoming to all."

Labels: , , , , , ,


Quote Of The Day - J.C. Von Krempach

"It is time for the rest of us to wake up. Tolerating the same-sex movement has been a very bad idea. You cannot tolerate what undermines democracy and ultimately destroys society. The same-sex lobby are the new Nazis. Their strategy consists simply in intimidating possible opponents. The vicious campaign against Brendan Eich is ultimately directed not only against him, but it sends a message to anybody who has not yet submitted to the dogma of same-sex bigotry: we will go after you, and we will destroy you. So you better do not dare express your true opinion on same-sex 'marriage. This is exactly how Communism operated. This is exactly how Nazism operated (at the time when it was not yet powerful enough to send its opponents into gas chambers). This is exactly what the Taliban do." - J.C. Von Krempach, writing for the blog of C-FAM, a Catholic group that (in partnership with NOM) is pressuring foreign governments to crackdown on their LGBT citizens. Right Wing Watch notes that Krempach's post was almost immediately deleted and replaced with a call for civility by another writer.

RELATED: Another member of C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute) is Breitbart columnist Austin Ruse, who last month was fired by the American Family Association's radio network after broadcasting a call for liberal college professors to be "taken out and shot." During a speech at CPAC 2012, Ruse denounced the United Nations for issuing a resolution against the gay death penalty.

CORRECTION: It appears I might have used the wrong photo in the first draft of this post. I'll update this post with the correct image if I can find it.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


JMG Reader Email On Andrew Sullivan

Yesterday's quote from Andrew Sullivan generated a firestorm of scathing responses here on JMG - as posts about Sullivan typically do. At this writing there are over 500 comments on that post. This morning a JMG reader emailed to complain about the tone of many of those comments. Here is his message is full:
The reader comments for your latest Sullivan quote were truly disheartening to me. While they may not be representative of the entirety of your readership, they are plentiful, and nearly in unison. That's not a readership I'd like to be associated with. In fact, would be embarrassed to be associated with. I believe everyone is entitled not only to their opinion, but that they also have the right to express it. And while I also predominantly agree with Sullivan re: Brendan Eich- the issue is lost in the tone, and lack of critical thinking in your readership's comments. Disagreement I can deal with, ignorance is unacceptable to me.

In my opinion, worthless as it may be to you, you could do your blog, which I believe can be a great vehicle for elevating dialogue, and yourself as a thoughtful writer, a favor by addressing this with your readers. Maybe they could then parrot something more constructive to the dialogue. One further note.... The commenters stating that AS owes a debt to nameless individuals for his right to marry another man? Really? Do they read anything other than your blog and TMZ? The man wrote the book on the case for gay marriage. Literally.
In his final line, the reader raises an excellent point as some activists point to Andrew Sullivan's 1989 cover story for the New Republic as the first salvo of the marriage equality movement. (The reader is probably referring to Sullivan's 1995 book Virtually Normal, which also addressed marriage.) The degree to which that 1989 article set the stage was for what was to come is certainly arguable, but that it has a place in the history of this battle is not.

Now, about the tone of the comments in yesterday's post...

As longtime JMG readers know, I rarely moderate comments but I do occasionally issue pleas for relative restraint, especially regarding our own people, and I regularly restate our few rules here about acceptable comments. I've always believed that unmoderated comments have played a big part in the success of this blog even though several times in recent years, ill-considered comments by JMG readers have caused our enemies to claim I, personally, have made "terroristic threats" against Christians and churches.

Last year, for example, hate group leader Matt Barber called for my arrest by US Attorney General Eric Holder in a World Net Daily article. Laughable calls for the FBI to raid Chez JMG are a small price to pay for what I believe to be, in general, the most lively comments section in the gay blogosphere. And while nobody here has made threats against Andrew Sullivan, the above email reminds me to ask our newer readers hit that rules link.

There's only one banned word in this blog's Disqus filter, so call out the haters and work that potty mouth of yours. But do keep in mind that even though folks like Sullivan may infuriate you at times, people that want almost everything that you want are not always our enemies. Demands for ideological purity are killing the Republican Party and are no less a danger for the LGBT rights movement.

UPDATE: A couple of other thoughts in response to emailed reactions to this post....

The banned word I mentioned is the N-word. Call it white guilt, call it hypocritical to ban the N-word while allowing "faggot" - but that word just makes my skin crawl, even when I read it in thoughtful articles which denounce racism. Other readers point out that I regularly eviscerate homocons, who are "our own people," as I said above. But homocons don't "want almost everything that you want" and often actively work against the civil rights of their own people. No apologies there.

But Andrew Sullivan is no homocon - at least not today - even though we disagree with him on some issues and as I do regarding the Mozilla controversy, although (as I said yesterday) I fear that it may strengthen opposition to our movement among some who previously had wavering opinions on LGBT issues. An email from a reader who attacks the JMG community might not have been the best tool to address commenting civility in general, but I've long been troubled by readers who mock Andrew Sullivan's HIV+ status and dredge up an ancient serosorting story. Please don't do that.

My larger point is that there is room for people for have different ideas about how to get to the same place. Every social movement in history has been torn by infighting and ours is definitely no exception. So yes, call out our own and call them out strongly when you think they are wrong about tactics. We can do that without the same vitriol we direct at our actual enemies.

Labels: , , , , , , , ,


Signorile Vs Sullivan

Yesterday Andrew Sullivan denounced the campaign against now-former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, declaring that if the Eich controversy represents the gay rights movement today, he no longer wants any part of it. Michelangelo Signorile responded to Sullivan this morning in a post which contends that it wasn't Eich's donation to the Prop 8 campaign that did him in. An excerpt:
Eich only announced he was stepping down after it was revealed late Wednesday that he'd given money to Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign in 1992, and later to Ron Paul's campaign. Suddenly, in addition to defending a CEO who gave money to homophobic efforts, Mozilla would have to defend a CEO who supported Buchanan, a far right extremist and isolationist who's been accused of racist and anti-Semitic attacks, and who also was, rightly, driven off MSNBC -- though that took years longer to accomplish than the few weeks it took to purge Alec Baldwin.

It all just became too much for Mozilla to bear, and who knows what else may have been dug up on Eich? None of this is about government censorship. It's about a company based in Northern California which has many progressive employees, and which has a lot of progressives and young people among the user base of its Firefox browser, realizing its CEO's world view was completely out of touch with the company's --and America's -- values and vision for the future.
Hit the link and read Signorile's full response.

Labels: , , , , , , ,


Matt Barber On Mozilla: Homofascists Are Breaking Out Their Long Knives

"Sadly, many people, even many Christians, think that I and others are using hyperbole when we refer to this sexual anarchist 'LGBT' movement as 'homofascist' or the 'Gaystapo.' I hope you’ll think again. It’s time to wake up and smell the impending anti-Christian persecution. It’s fully at hand. Christians, buckle up. Your whole world is about to change. The Rainbowshirts are emboldened and they’ve broken out the long knives. 'Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence' – Psalm 73:6. They smell blood in the water. I’ve often said that these folks want those who speak Biblical truth about human sexuality and legitimate marriage either 1) dead, 2) imprisoned or, if they can have neither of these, 3) marginalized to the point where they can’t even support their families. Check No. 3 off the list. I guess they’re working backwards. Freedom is hanging on by a thread, America, and it is those who worship the sin of Sodom that are determined to finish it off once and for all." - Hate group leader Matt Barber, in a post illustrated with an image of a pink-uniformed Adolf Hitler wearing makeup.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,